EMGs vs The Other Pickup Brands.

I think Im done with EMGs. The 85 is better I think cause its not so bright. I always had a hard time finding a passive pickup with enough gain that was not too out of control. The Invader is sooo noisy, same with the Dimarzio X2n, and the Dimebag pickup. They pick up a lot of string noise and shit. But I have now found the Dimarzio Evolution. I have a 7 string version and a 6 string one. They are loud but not noisy and still have a good lead tone.

I have found the EMGs to compress the signal so much that you cant hear any dynamic in the playing. And they seem to offer to much scratch factor. They just seem to be one dimentional. But they are gainy and they can make an amp with low gain sound a lot better. But if you have the gain on your amp, that to me is a better sounding gain than what comes from a high gain pickup like EMG.

Colin
 
vile_ator said:
I think Im done with EMGs. The 85 is better I think cause its not so bright. I always had a hard time finding a passive pickup with enough gain that was not too out of control. The Invader is sooo noisy, same with the Dimarzio X2n, and the Dimebag pickup. They pick up a lot of string noise and shit. But I have now found the Dimarzio Evolution. I have a 7 string version and a 6 string one. They are loud but not noisy and still have a good lead tone.

I have found the EMGs to compress the signal so much that you cant hear any dynamic in the playing. And they seem to offer to much scratch factor. They just seem to be one dimentional. But they are gainy and they can make an amp with low gain sound a lot better. But if you have the gain on your amp, that to me is a better sounding gain than what comes from a high gain pickup like EMG.

Colin
Click to expand...

I feel exactly the opposite way, but your opinion is well researched and you've found what you like. If I played passives I would use Evos, they rule!
 
vile_ator said:
I have found the EMGs to compress the signal so much that you cant hear any dynamic in the playing. And they seem to offer to much scratch factor. They just seem to be one dimentional. But they are gainy and they can make an amp with low gain sound a lot better. But if you have the gain on your amp, that to me is a better sounding gain than what comes from a high gain pickup like EMG.

Colin
Click to expand...
really... i've not found that to be true at all... and i have owned or used just about every high gain amp of the last 15 years and every pick-up that has been listed in this thread so far. i have never had a problem with a "lack of dynamics" when playing with EMG's...the dynamics are in your hands brother.. NOT the pick-up.. the EMG pick-ups only have gain... and thus more headroom for even MORE dynamics... not less. i have gotten the best clean and semi-clean tones captured on my albums over the years with EMGs... if the sheer volume is clipping the preamp stage of your head or just pushing it too hard for your taste, you just back off your volume pot (on your guitar) a bit.. wa-lah!! i only suggest that for clean or semi-clean sounds though. for heavy rhythms of course you leave the volume knob full up.

players in other genres seem to understand this concept, even passive pick-up users. in metal though i really only see guys touch their volume knobs during a song if there's a break in the rhythm part and they don't have a Hush unit.

and i have never heard the words "one dimensional" used to describe my playing or sounds, nor do i feel that the albums Andy makes sound one dimensional... and as i'm sure you know, a good amount of those albums are made with EMGs loaded into the guitars.

don't get me wrong, there are some passives i like and would happily use if EMGs didn't exist, but.... they do, and they offer me far MORE dynamic range with greater clarity than any other pickups i've ever used.

if you prefer to drive your head harder with the gain control of your amp's preamp stage, that's fine and it's a personal choice... but me and many other pros i know prefer to hit that stage a little harder coming into the input and not have to crank up the gain control as much. and all debates about preference aside, the end result of hitting the input harder with a pick-up capable of higher gain and not having to turn up the amp's preamp gain as much is simply this...more headroom. and that puts the highly "dimensional" sound and broad dynamics right where they should be: in the hands of the player.

but Evos sound pretty good too, ;) they'd definitely be on my list if EMGs suddenly dissappeared. :Spin:
 
My only prob with EMG 81s is that they distort the clean channel. I switch to the neck pickup for that and it's a bitch sometimes to do live. Granted, I'm known to be pretty wasted at shows and sometimes I don't even bother switching to the clean channel at all on those parts. haha...my theory is, if everyone else is using em, there's gotta be a reason for it and they sound good to me anyway.
 
Genius Gone Insane said:
My only prob with EMG 81s is that they distort the clean channel.
Click to expand...
as i mentioned above.. just cut back on the volume knob on your guitar... it'll clean it right up and you'll have dynamics for days. if you're that wasted during shows you may just want to leave that suggestion for recording though.
 
James Murphy said:
if you're that wasted during shows you may just want to leave that suggestion for recording though.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the boys and I are trying to figure out what to do about that drinking part. Shows, to me at least, are a lot more fun to play when you're wasted--or "hammer-smashed-face" as we like to call it--but then there's a tradeoff. Like our friends who hear us in the studio practicing are like "why don't you guys play like that when you're on stage? you always play better in the studio". And the answer is that we're wasted, so I guess we gotta clean it up a little.
 
The only drawback to my EMG when I had it installed in my Gibson is that, since the pot is bigger than the original one, I had to change the knobs on my guitar (but I prefer this way now anyway...), and they also had to cut a hole in the guitar body for the battery... Other than that, it sounds great !!! Strangely, it's difficult to back of the volume pot on it though, it's not very linear, you have to be very precise. Maybe this is a problem or something with my volume knob, but I don't do that very often anyway so I'm fine and a happy owner.
 
James Murphy said:
really... i've not found that to be true at all... and i have owned or used just about every high gain amp of the last 15 years and every pick-up that has been listed in this thread so far. i have never had a problem with a "lack of dynamics" when playing with EMG's...the dynamics are in your hands brother.. NOT the pick-up.. the EMG pick-ups only have gain... and thus more headroom for even MORE dynamics... not less. i have gotten the best clean and semi-clean tones captured on my albums over the years with EMGs... if the sheer volume is clipping the preamp stage of your head or just pushing it too hard for your taste, you just back off your volume pot (on your guitar) a bit.. wa-lah!! i only suggest that for clean or semi-clean sounds though. for heavy rhythms of course you leave the volume knob full up.

players in other genres seem to understand this concept, even passive pick-up users. in metal though i really only see guys touch their volume knobs during a song if there's a break in the rhythm part and they don't have a Hush unit.
Click to expand...

Adam Jones of Tool sure does, he controls the level of gain in his sound entirely with the volume knob, backing off to 1 or 2 for a clean tone and so on...
 
In regards to the post by James Murphy about EMG's...AMEN!

I completely agree with everything that was said. I love the additional dynamics that EMG's offer you, and I've never had my sound characterized as "one dimensional" before. As far as clean sounds, I actually enjoy the clean sounds I get from EMG's better than most passive pickups, and that's with an EMG 81 and still running the volume knob on full. If you're distorting your clean channel with EMG's, I would suggest trying some different settings or adjusting your pick attack. My cleans have never suffered with EMG's. In fact, I like the sound of them better. They also clean up nicely when rolling down the volume knob.
 
Hopkins-WitchfinderGeneral said:
Adam Jones of Tool sure does, he controls the level of gain in his sound entirely with the volume knob, backing off to 1 or 2 for a clean tone and so on...
Click to expand...

As does Tony Iommi, whoc uses a one channel amp and backs off his volume knob for cleans. I do that on a few songs with my band too when playing live. Instead of using my clean channel, I'll just roll off the volume knob for a clean sound.
 
indeed.. and as a major Tool and Black Sabbath fan i should have recalled that.. but, it all goes towards my point. i often roll back my volume knob during performance for certain parts... all part of playing dynamically, which as i said earler is all in your hands, not your pick-ups. cheers Hop and Wulf :headbang:
 
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